Saturation Point

IN A NUTSHELL
'Saturation Point' was everything I could ask for from speculative fiction: original, surprising, science-based with a few 'what if' extrapolations, and the twists and pace of a thriller. All of which was made even better by Emma Newman's narration. I think this is Adrian Tchaikovsky at his best.

'Saturation Point' was a tense, intelligent Climate Fiction thriller, made more intense by being delivered as a first-person narrative at novella length.

I liked that, in this version of a climate change apocalypse, it's only the mammals whose survival is threatened. Other species are thriving. So much Climate Fiction talks about The End Of The World, envisioning global warming as killing the planet. 'Saturation Point' recognises show more that global warming is only The End Of The World As We Know It. It imagines a climate where the humidity is so high that humans rapidly and fatally overheat unless they're protected by a suit. Then it asks, "But what life WOULD not just survive but thrive in that environment?"

The novella is a thriller, not a treatise on ecology. It's a compelling story, told by a scientist who is being given a chance to return to a place where her career peaked twenty years earlier: the hostile environment of the Zone, an equatorial rainforest, lush with life but with a lethal-to-humans level of humidity. It is a compelling mystery told as a first-person account by a narrator in a hostile environment with her agenda under threat from the unexpected. The plot kept me guessing. The action kept me turning the pages. The underlying concept left me with plenty to think about.

I recommend the audiobook. Emma Newman's performance did a lot to increase my engagement with the story. Click on the YouTube link below to hear a sample.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6CabnzMuFIw show less

Starts out well, with a near future global warming scenario that's quite intriguing, and ends up a rejected X-Files spec script complete with a cartoon villain giving a speech that includes jibes about the nature of humans fit for a 50s movie. Even threw in some topical Corona points and how working from home is perfect for an impersonator making it feel immediately dated.
I'm also reminded of that MST3K bit about not including lots of references to good movies in your bad movie; making Roadside Picnic and Ballard, J G references just sets a bar this book can't reach. There's a fair amount of backpatting from the author here so maybe he really thought he was squaring up. Read The Drowned World instead.

(2025) pretty good. Read like a sci fi movie would flow. I liked the perspective of it being all in the form of audio journals.

Fascinating to horrifying eco-sf story here.